Which is cheaper to run - petrol or diesel?

Mildly_Miffed

WIAWSNB said:

WIAWSNB said:

(Not bothered about PDF and all that malarkey.)

I've never had a PDF problem

DPF
Diesel Particulate Filter

PDF
Portable Document Format

WIAWSNB

I thought DPF stood for Dorky Pedant's Forum? 

(jesting... )

Frozen_up_north

My 1.5 eTSI turbo petrol “mild hybrid” Seat Leon with a 7 speed DSG gearbox averaged 43.8 MPG in January, 50.8 MPG in August. These figures are from the MySeat app. The oil temperature doesn’t reach the high 90s until around 5 miles, with subsequently lowish MPG until really hot.

I typically have a couple of 2 mile trips 5 days a week, plus two or three 20 mile journeys. These are single carriageway A and B roads.

On a recent 155 mile trip the indicated average MPG for the whole journey reached just under 60 MPG, it was about 50 miles of motorway and 100 miles of single carriageway A road. The same MPG was indicated on the return journey.

Like other replies, I used to be a diesel fan, but not anymore. Especially now being retired and not doing a home to work daily commute.

forgotmyname

Driving in the City heavy slow traffic my sisters petrol Megane used less fuel but on a run my diesel used
a lot less fuel.

What is best for your journey?  Hire or borrow a car your thinking of buying and compare them.

knightstyle

After 7 years of using a 2l Ford diesel we now have a 1.6 petrol hybrid.  Most journeys were under 5 miles.
Had a diesel for caravan, now sold, towing.
Diesel returned 39mpg. So far the petrol hybrid is 51mpg.

WIAWSNB

forgotmyname said:

Driving in the City heavy slow traffic my sisters petrol Megane used less fuel but on a run my diesel used
a lot less fuel.

What is best for your journey?  Hire or borrow a car your thinking of buying and compare them.

I'm not concerned about a small variation in economy, but my last two Citroen diesels have never, ever dropped below a genuine 50mpg average, and almost always being in the mids.

Hybrids are great by most accounts, but I couldn't bear for a pure-petrol to start delivering below, say, 40mpg.

And I do prefer the diesel running style - the lazy low-revving take off (tho' not a biggie).

Mildly_Miffed

WIAWSNB said:

I'm not concerned about a small variation in economy, but my last two Citroen diesels have never, ever dropped below a genuine 50mpg average, and almost always being in the mids.

Hybrids are great by most accounts, but I couldn't bear for a pure-petrol to start delivering below, say, 40mpg

Let's put some numbers to that, shall we?

40mpg @ £1.36/litre = 15.3p/mile
50mpg @ £1.40/litre = 12.6p/mile

Is your budget REALLY so finely balanced that 2.7p/mile, £216/year on 8k, is a showstopper that you "couldn't bear"?

How much is your TOTAL annual motoring cost, including depreciation, maintenance, insurance, VED, MOT, tyres, fuel, parking etc etc?

Let's assume £2k depreciation, £750 legals (insurance, VED, MOT), £1k maintenance/tyres, and £1000 fuel (12.6p) - so a total of £4,750/year = a gnat under 60p/mile.

Your "couldn't bear" threshold is just 4.5% of that.

Ibrahim5

Have you seen the depreciation on EVs? Fuel might be cheap but the depreciation is off the scale!

WellKnownSid

Ibrahim5 said:

Have you seen the depreciation on EVs? Fuel might be cheap but the depreciation is off the scale!

Yes but depreciation works both ways.

We bought a £31k Zoe for £13k with 2k miles on the clock.

After losing so much value that it was cheaper than a much older Clio with fifteen - sorry twenty times the mileage - there’s little depreciation left.

2 years and 18,000 miles later WBAC would offer me £500 more that what they did when we bought the car.

WIAWSNB

Mildly_Miffed said:

WIAWSNB said:

I'm not concerned about a small variation in economy, but my last two Citroen diesels have never, ever dropped below a genuine 50mpg average, and almost always being in the mids.

Hybrids are great by most accounts, but I couldn't bear for a pure-petrol to start delivering below, say, 40mpg

Let's put some numbers to that, shall we?

40mpg @ £1.36/litre = 15.3p/mile
50mpg @ £1.40/litre = 12.6p/mile

Is your budget REALLY so finely balanced that 2.7p/mile, £216/year on 8k, is a showstopper that you "couldn't bear"?

How much is your TOTAL annual motoring cost, including depreciation, maintenance, insurance, VED, MOT, tyres, fuel, parking etc etc?

Let's assume £2k depreciation, £750 legals (insurance, VED, MOT), £1k maintenance/tyres, and £1000 fuel (12.6p) - so a total of £4,750/year = a gnat under 60p/mile.

Your "couldn't bear" threshold is just 4.5% of that.

Good point, well made.

No, ~£200 is not a deal breaker. And I am totally considering a petrol (even Hybrid if I can find one).

When I first started looking at petrol Kugas, however, I was reading 'real life' examples of mid-30's ave, low-30's in town, which shocked me*. If it actually returns above 40mpg average, I'd be happy with that. (Still pants compared to mid-50's, but hey).

I also hate the actual 'filling-up' process, and I'm used to near-forgetting how to do it with my current diesel :-)

*"The sole petrol engine can return up to 44.1mpg..."